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Happy 3rd Birthday!

Jude,
Three years ago today at 3:06 am, you made your grand entrance into the world and changed our life completely. It was such a scary pregnancy and the labor was so hard and frightening. They kept “preparing me for the worst” and I kept believing as I dreamed for the best. I believed in you before I ever even saw your face. I fell in love with you from the moment I found out I was carrying you. For 9 months I was head over heals in love with someone I had never seen face to face. I loved you with every kick, hiccup and even through the heartburn, bed rest, back pain, sleepless nights and swelling. I knew you. I carried you through trauma and I put myself through pain to fight for you. Doctors wanted to put me first multiple times but for me it was always you. From the first moment of knowing you were mine, nothing was more important than loving and protecting you. My own self no longer mattered. The enemy tried so hard to scare me, steal my joy and break me down and while I was scared at times, the joy I had for you far outweighed it all. I knew you had a purpose and I prayed into that with my whole heart. I remember walking to the delivery room and pacing the halls in labor while saying “Jesus, you have control. Jude is strong and his heart beats. Breathe Jude! Just breathe” Before you came they said you probably wouldn’t cry when you were born because you would need assistance breathing. But you, my boy proved them wrong. You cried out the most incredible cry that sounded like a warrior but also a little baby lamb. There you were! Perfect, tiny, fragile, so soft and absolutely beautiful. A living, breathing miracle before my own eyes and I just had the honor of bringing you into the world. And suddenly, none of the pain mattered. I couldn’t believe how beautiful you were. I still remember the way it felt to hold you the first time. You were so itty bitty, your skin was so soft and warm and the sound of each breath was healing to my heart. The sound of each breath was victory. You fought hard and you entered the world a true warrior. Jude, you have changed my life in the most beautiful ways. While it feels like just yesterday you arrived, it also feels like you’ve been my best friend forever. Sweet baby, I have watched you go through so much and held you through many storms. And yet it’s me who fails to stand strong at times and it’s you who never gets knocked down. You smile through pain and breathe through fear. Even though you have had many hardships, that’s not your story. RCDP is not your story. You’re story is HOPE! Your life is a testimony to the goodness of God. Your strength and bravery is an example to many and your joy is contagious and healing. You have such a beautiful story and The Lord has used your incredible life in such powerful ways. I can’t say I always understand everything and that I don’t ever fail in my faith. But the way you never lose your joy and the way you fight through any battle teaches me so much. It strengthens me faith. You’re daily teaching me lessons. I am so thankful The Lord chose daddy and I to be your parents. You’re our world. We are so proud of you! These past three years watching you, loving you, fighting for you and holding you have been a dream and I can’t wait for many more. Happy Birthday, Brave Warrior! Jude Sullivan peters, you are my perfect miracle. I love you to the moon!

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6 thoughts on “Happy 3rd Birthday! ”

Happy Birthday, Jude! You are a beautiful gift from God, a strong little fighter and you are truly loved by me & so many people. We have never met you or been blessed by holding you, but you are very loved!
You have such a wonderful mommy & daddy and a loving & special extended
family.
You are an angel, I love you and I thank you for blessing my life.

Happy Birthday Jude. Today we celebrate you! I hope you know how many lives you have touched in your 3 years. I have watched for posts about you so I can smile! God bless you sweet boy and also your wonderful family!

Sir Jude, I’ll be blunt honest, my beloved little brother in Jesus! I’ve been following your adventure almost from the beginning, soon after your miracle birth!
I have often spoken regarding how your Mama’s and your faith humbled me, and challenged my weakened, beaten down faith. After too many battles fighting stiff-necked denominational interests without—and still fighting just as intractable chronic pain within (in the form of Chronic Daily Migraines)—I was hanging on by a bare thread.
I’m so grateful for how Jesus has strengthened that rope strand by strand, and has reminded and assured me that none other than Jesus himself is holding that rope—and me at the same time!!
And part of that strengthening has taken place as I’ve read the posts your Mama and others have placed in your Facebook page on your behalf.

At the same time—and here’s the “blunt honest” and oh so difficult part—I can no longer regularly read every post.
Why? I guess the challenges you face overwhelm me as I deal with mine. Not that I’m comparing one with the other. Yours seem so much greater‼️😰😰
On the other hand, Jesus warns me from comparing one’s “cross to bear” with another —
◦ (Jesus said this to show how Peter would die to give glory to God.) Then Jesus [again] said to Peter, “Follow me!”
◦ Peter turned and saw that the follower Jesus loved was walking behind them. (This was the follower who had leaned against Jesus at the [Passover] supper and had said, “Lord, who will turn against you?”) When Peter saw him behind them he asked Jesus, “Lord, what about him?”
◦ Jesus answered, “Perhaps I want him to live until I come back. That should not be important to you. You follow me!” ‭‭
[John‬ ‭21:19-22‬ ‭ICB‬‬, adapted]

I know that following Jesus is what you are trying to do, as is your Mama, your Dad, your extended family plus your Facebook family.
And that’s what I must do, even if it means having a bit less contact with you.
Just the same, I will always keep you and your Mama in my heart of hearts.
And when Jesus returns in the clouds of glory to resurrect his sleeping followers, and together with them we who are alive when he comes back, we all will be transformed from our perishing messed up bodies into the imperishable—and our mortal bodies will be rebuilt into immortal ones. [See 1 Corinthians 15:51-53]

Thousands of your Facebook “family” are looking forward to that day!!! Ah yes, for most of us, like me, finally getting to meet you face to face for the first time—and observe, no longer by faith—instead see you with our own eyes, that you have been made whole!!! Unrestrained, unspeakable joy! Some will be dancing in complete jubilation. Others shouting out praises to our King!! I can see a line form, for some of us will want to give you a bear hug of pure elation!
Suddenly we all stop in our tracks, mid-stride maybe. And an immediate hush settles over each one—over all.
Jesus has suddenly appeared in our midst, and then proceeds to make a beeline straight to you. You freeze in place, not out of fear—rather in pure awe—and absolute devotion and overwhelming gratitude. Plus an immediate recognition, a simple yet unshakable familiarity.
After all, you’ve had the indwelling Jesus the Messiah, in the person of his Holy Spirit, living within the deepest recesses of your mind, your heart, your whole body—while living what normally would have been the nightmarish hell of your one in a hundred million births disease of RCDP. Oh, it WAS hellish, especially those nasty seizures. Never mind the compression of your spinal nerves where a generally straight neck would have been.

Ah, how well you remember your Mama, sometimes holding you, other times just caressing your skin. Your Dad, Grandma and Grandpa, aunts, cousins … lots and lots of tender loving care. Above all, though, it was Jesus, the Holy Spirit, who most carried you through the darkest moments; other times, those moments became minutes which sometimes passed into hours.
You heard people refer to you as the BRAVE WARRIOR. You smiled so often, because all along you knew who the “Brave Warrior” was—the Lamb of God, the Lion of Judah. The rider on the White Horse, the leader of heaven’s “cavalry”—the Word of God, the King of kings & Lord of lords.** And he lived IN YOU!!!!
And as Jesus reaches you, embodying all that is love—after all, God is love—he hugs you, and holds you, seemly as if to never let you go! Warmth and comfort and love—you seem lost as the Jesus in you, Jesus in the person of the Holy Spirit, is … there are no adequate words—as if a fusing is going on. But no. Jesus who still hugs you has been holding you from … your earliest memories. He is one and the same.

Then Jesus steps back, as if to admire his handiwork. Finally he opens his mouth to say, “My, oh my! You really are fearfully and wonderfully made!
“Yes, my beloved brother Jude. You are a Masterpiece!! Welcome to my Father’s house!!”
And all you can do is crumble at his feet.
And in hushed silence and utter awe, we all fall prostate at the feet of Jesus.

Suddenly a light clicks on inside your mind, as you remain bowed at his feet, and you feel a strong hand on your shoulder. And there is a nudging from Jesus’ Holy Spirit still within you. A faint cry from the trembling lips of your Mama the day you were born. She’s holding you for the first time. You’ve already proven doctors wrong in so many ways. Especially those powerful lungs crying out, gulping life giving air into your still very compromised little body. And this is what she sings to you:

“You are so beautiful
To me
…
You’re everything I hope for
You’re every, everything I need
You are so beautiful to me”***

Oops, Jude, great song but wrong track within your memory bank.
A bit further back …

Yes, words penned by King David, Jesus’ ancestor! They became the rallying cry of faith over your little life.

Welcome home, Sir Jude! Your journey has only just begun!

“That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are [all messed up], our inner spiritual lives are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are [comparatively] small and won’t last very long. Yet they produce for us a glory that vastly outweighs them and will last forever! So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
‭‭[2 Corinthians‬ ‭4:16-18‬ ‭NLT‬‬, adapted]